


First Ones Tech

by Toralyzer



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21598762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toralyzer/pseuds/Toralyzer
Summary: Entrapta tries to tell people what she's working on.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	First Ones Tech

Entrapta was working on the First Ones tech that they had discovered. This piece seemed to be part of a computing device. It seemed to store information somehow.

“What are these rolls with little bumps and grooves?” Entrapta wondered. “How can I read this?”

Just then, Hordak came by.

“Entrapta,” he said, with a friendly sort of menace. “How proceeds your work? Are you extracting power from the First Ones tech?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Entrapta grinned. “I think these little tiny chips are most likely information storage units. But the thing is, they must have been  _ part  _ of a much larger machine, so -”

“I see,” Hordak nodded. “And with the information within, we could have better weapons! Better knowledge of the planet itself!”

“Maybe!” said Entrapta excitedly. “And ancient art, and culture, and anything! I’m just trying to figure out  _ how  _ this piece communicated with the others, because that might -”

“Excellent,” Hordak interrupted her. “I’m very proud of your progress. Let me know as soon as your next invention is ready.” And he ruffled her hair, and walked away.

Entrapta stared at her work for a moment and blinked. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “Anyway...”

All of a sudden, she noticed Scorpia across the room.

“Oh, hey! Scorpia!” Entrapta called out. “Can I show you something?”

“Sure thing!” Scorpia jogged over.

“Here it is,” said Entrapta, holding up the device. Scorpia was watching with rapt attention. “You see,” said Entrapta, “I think it’s clear that the patterns along these rolls of this thin material are some kind of First Ones method of densely storing information. I want to figure out how to translate and analyze it, and I think the best way to do that may be to determine how this device communicated with others, especially user interface devices. That would put the information one step closer to a human-readable language, making it much easier to use cryptological methods and existing historical knowledge to decipher the language itself!”

Scorpia’s expression remained exactly the same. “Oh... yeah?” she said uncertainly. “Um... I think you might have lost me a little around... um... ‘densely’?”

“Oh,” said Entrapta, a little disappointed. “That was near the beginning of the explanation, so you missed a lot. Let me reiterate. I think these patterns are a method of densely storing information. I want to figure out how to translate and analyze it, and -”

“Oh, okay, um -” Scorpia said quickly. “I think - I think you might need to put it in different words for me, love.”

Entrapta blinked. “But those were the  _ right  _ words. Hm... I guess I could say... the arrangement of these  _ markings _ ... are a  _ way, _ of...  _ collecting _ information very  _ compactly... _ ”

“No, that’s - that’s okay, actually,” said Scorpia, looking embarrassed. “Thank you for showing me. Um... see you around.” Then Scorpia left too.

Entrapta looked back to her work and sighed.

She decided she was going to have to put it on pause. She wanted to tell someone about her research.

Entrapta got up and, hugging the little information chip close to her chest, hurried out of the room, pushing her chair in with her hair.

Entrapta wandered down the hallways, searching for anyone who didn’t seem too busy.

Finally, she heard snarling and hissing sounds coming from one of the exercise rooms, and poked in to investigate.

Catra was hammering on a punching back, boxer’s gloves strapped to her fists. The punching bag seemed to have someone’s face drawn on in marker, although the drawing wasn’t very good.

“Take  _ that. _ And  _ that!” _ Catra was panting as she threw out blow after blow.

“Hey Catra!” Entrapta yelled. Catra screeched and spun around, her tail fluffing out.

“Entrapta!” she yelled. “What are you doing here? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“Nope!” Entrapta reassured her. “I wanted to tell you about the research that I’m doing. May I?”

“Um...” Catra looked at the punching bag, blushing. “Sure. I guess.”

“Excellent!” Entrapta beamed. She held out the fragment of tech to Catra. “This, you see, is a First Ones info storage unit. Well, I’m pretty sure. Now, I’m trying to see how it communicates with the main system, so -”

“Huh!” Catra muttered to herself. “I know someone who could use that. Then maybe  _ she _ could communicate!”

“Um, yes,” said Entrapta kindly. “Especially if she was from the time of the First Ones. So, the  _ problem _ I’m dealing with, is that I don’t know how the device could have  _ read _ these little grooves - this isn’t conductive, so it has nothing to do with electrical pulses -”

“Yeah, that’s always the problem with First Ones tech, isn’t it?” Catra slumped against the wall dejectedly. “You can’t read them. Not until it’s too late. You just... don’t know how they work.”

“Um... yes,” said Entrapta generously. “Sometimes that’s the issue! It really varies, though. Yesterday I was investigating how they harnessed the energy from volcanoes without melting. It’s a tricky balance! And my partial conclusion was that -”

She trailed off as she saw that Catra had begun punching the punching bag again. “I’ll show her a volcano,” Catra was muttering. “We’ll see who melts.”

Entrapta felt a not-so-pleasant twist in her gut. Without another word, she left the room.

Entrapta walked quickly down the halls, feeling heated and itchy in her clothes. She almost didn’t notice the open door showing her one last potential target for her explanation.

“Oh!” she said, going back a few steps. “Kyle! Do you... have a moment?”

“Um... yeah,” he said a little bashfully, sitting alone in the cafeteria and eating a sandwich. “I’m just on break from training because my blood sugar dropped. I don’t have very long.” He took a big bite.

Entrapta jumped in and took a seat across from him. “Great!” she said. “Because I really wanna tell someone about my research! Can I tell you? Would that be okay?”

“Oh, sure!” said Kyle, his eyes brightening. “Yeah, I’d love to hear. Tell me all about it.”

“Oh, goody!” Entrapta squealed, accidentally slipping into silly language. “Um - ahem - um, so. This is a First Ones storage unit, see?” Kyle looked at it and nodded. “And these thin patterned rolls store all the information. You see what I mean?”

“Sure!” Kyle said brightly. “So, like - the energy gets rolled up in there, and you need to, like harness it?”

“Ummm...” Entrapta frowned. “No, not energy. It’s a form of writing. And, like - there might even be sounds, or videos - think about it, videos taken  _ hundreds  _ of years ago!” Her hair fluffed up in excitement.

Kyle tilted his head. “I don’t get it. I thought the whole point of First Ones tech was it could harness huge amounts of energy.”

“No, no!” Entrapta explained gamely. “Tech is... tech! It can do all  _ sorts _ of things, that’s the point! It’s... a way someone figured out of doing things.  _ Anything. _ ” She gestured rather futilely with her hands and ponytails.

Kyle frowned, that sympathetic trying-to-humor-her frown. “But, um... I don’t really get the point. Don’t we want all that tech to power big, powerful... I don’t know, weapons? Or vehicles or whatever? What’s the point of First Ones tech that just... has information in it?”

“Well...” Entrapta said uncertainly. “I... guess I just think it’s neat.”

“Okay. That’s really cool, Entrapta.” Kyle smiled sunnily at her.

“Thanks,” Entrapta said, her voice coming out a little quiet.

“Alright, I gotta go,” said Kyle, cramming the last of his sandwich and jumping up from the bench. “Back to the old grindstone!” he said with a pained grin, and dashed back out toward the training rooms.

When Entrapta got back to her lab, she didn’t feel like working at all. The problem was bouncing around in her head, the same words she’d been saying all day, and she felt like she would never actually solve it. She slumped down into her wheely chair.

She turned with a start as a new figure came trotting into the room - and then relaxed with relief.

“Emily!” she said happily. “Come to mommy, Emily.”

The robot servoed over to her, and Entrapta gave her a big hug.

Emily whirred, in a way Entrapta would like to believe was questioning.

“Well, you see,” Entrapta said quietly, “I’m trying to figure out how this pattern script on these compact rolls was translated to the computer system. I know it doesn’t use electricity, like our systems, and I feel like any kind of visual pattern-reader device would beg the same question, how does it get the info over the distance to the computer. I’m not sure if I should be looking for a different force, a different particle that can travel through wires, or a different setup entirely, I just... can’t visualize it.” Entrapta sighed and caught her breath.

Emily was silent.

Entrapta patted her foreleg, and leaned against her huge, round chassis, and was suddenly so horribly lonely she felt like she could cry.

Emily creaked and whirred deep inside. Entrapta could feel the vibrations.

Then Emily whirred in a pattern.  _ Whir. Whiiiiiirr. Whir. Whir. _ And she stretched out a leg to tap the coil of bumps and grooves in the First Ones device.

_ The pattern. _ Entrapta spooled out the roll and followed the series of dots down as Emily imitated their lengths in sound.

_ Sound! _ Entrapta gasped.  _ Vibrations! A little needle following the pattern as it rolled around, and vibrating like metallic guitar strings, and vibrating that exact sequence all the way up to the mainframe! _

_ First Ones computing rooms, booting up, vibrating, humming, transferring data by way of a strange, alien music in the walls! _

“Oh, you’re brilliant!” Entrapta jumped up, beaming. “Brilliant!  _ Thank _ you, Emily!” Entrapta gave her a big hug and a kiss too. Emily hugged back, and swayed bashfully.

Entrapta felt tears coming to her eyes, only maybe in the good way. “This is so exciting!” she told Emily. “Let’s go make a device that can read it! Let’s hear it as  _ sound! _ That’ll be the first step!” Entrapta took off for the scrap pile, Emily creaking after her on her four simple legs.

It was a couple days before she had a makeshift needle with the right sensitivity to play the recordings. She was still only expecting digital gibberish, something that the main processing unit would have turned into actual data, text, programs, whatever. So it was an absolute shock when the sound that came out of the recording was a real human voice, plain as day.

Entrapta sat in awe, feeling a wash of underwhelming and overwhelming history. Emily sat down silently behind her. She seemed to quiet down even her internal processes out of reverence.

And the person from the past talked about... something. Something unbelievably strange, though obviously mundane. With many words she had never heard before, but many she  _ had. _ The person talked. Entrapta listened.


End file.
